Craft Elves' Countdown to Christmas - October 2020 Edition!

Welcome back!  It's the 25th of the month and time once again for the Crafty Elves to share the Christmas/Holiday cards we've made this month!

After you leave here be sure to visit Debra and Michael to see what they have created!

Here's how I was inspired:

First... and foremost... this!  Have you seen the cool collage style background stamps over in the Rubbernecker Stamps shop??  SO cool!  They are cool whether you color the whole image using markers, pencils, or watercolor or even if you leave them black and white... or spotlight color them... or just emboss them in any color.  You can use just part of it for a smaller card or the whole thing to cover your slimline.  This is the Christmas one but you'll be seeing some of the others and check them all out at the Rubbernecker Stamps shop.  I'll include links at the end of this post.

I colored the entire image and then die cut it using a stitched slimline die.  I used Copics and accented in some areas with a gold gel pen.  To keep it simple and not cover up too much of that fun image, I simply placed some glitter tape across the bottom and used the Alphabet dies for my sentiment!  Easy peasy!

And then I had some extra images from a couple Elizabeth Craft stamp sets left over from prior projects so I decided to make some quick cards with them:

For all of my backgrounds, I blended some Broken China and Tumbled Glass Distress Oxide Inks onto a stitched panel.  Then I splattered some water over the top and dabbed off the excess with a paper towel.  Finally, I used a dotted stencil and applied some Gina K Designs Iridescent Glitz Glitter Gel through it.

I set those aside and colored in the images I had already stamped and die cut.  Then I took various dies from Rubbernecker including those awesome Birch trees and the fabulous One Piece Scalloped Rectangle and cut them out.

 

For this one, I used the inside squares from the Scalloped Frame Slimline die.  I used the Merry Christmas die from Impression Obsession and the cute little sentiment on the cute penguins from Miss Ink Stamps.

That's me for today!  I hope you had fun!  Have you started your Christmas cards yet?

Before you go... I have a winner from the comments in Septembers post!

Kim!  Please PM me your mailing address so I can get your Happy Mail in the mail to you!

We're doing it again this month... leave me some love and maybe I'll send you some Happy Mail!

Now be sure to head on over to Michael's and Debra's blogs and check out what they've got for you today!

Below are links to the products I've used (including additional slimline stamps from Rubbernecker).  Should you choose to purchase any of the Rubbernecker products using these links I will receive a small compensation at no additional cost to you.  The other products are just links for your ease of use and are not affiliate links.  Thank you!

Caffeine Fueled Paper Play - Happy Hoolidays!

Howdy!  I'm up on the Coffee Loving Cardmakers Blog today with some more Elizabeth Craft Designs!  Hope you'll hop on over there for more details and links!

Thanks so much for stopping and hope you'll come again soon!

 

Caffeine Fueled Paper Play The Challenge - Elizabeth Craft Designs

I'm up on the blog over at Caffeine Fueled Paper Play with this one!  I've got a new challenge and last month's winner!  Hope you'll hop on over there and join me for more details and links and maybe to play along!

 

Celebrating the Inky Paws 100th Challenge!

Popping in quick today to play along with the 100th Inky Paws Challenge!  I've had this sweet Little Lilies stamp set for a little while now and I loved this chance to ink it up!  Lily of the Valley is one of my top 10 favorite flowers.  They are SO pretty and SO sweet and SO fragrant!  Coming from the Western New York area it wasn't uncommon to come across a stand of Lily of the Valley and before we moved to the Southwest I was working on my own patch near my house.  It was just starting to spread when we decided to move out here to the Southwest and they don't grow well here so I do miss them!!

Speaking of favorites, the challenge for #100 is to play along with your Favorite previous challenge.  Well... I have a really hard time picking favorites but I landed on this sketch challenge which was Challenge #73

I love this sketch because of the clear focal point which was perfect for this sweet flower... and the chance that the banners and middle strip give you to add some contrasting or coordinating colors and patterns... yet you have all of that blank space on the top and bottom for lots of your favorite color or pattern... or blank space if you prefer... but let's face it.. I'm not a big blank space person!  I've got all of this paper!  I might as well use it!

Some other products I've used today are these Nested Rectangles from Rubbernecker; this beautiful Heart Circle Die from Gina K Designs; and these Stitched Fishtail Banners from Elizabeth Crafts.

I'm also playing along over at Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday Challenge which is Anything Goes this week!  And you can find the 100th Inky Paws Challenge here, but hurry because you only have a few hours left to play along!

Thanks SO much for stopping by!  Come again soon!

Crafty Elves' Countdown to Christmas-February 2019 Edition!

Welcome to this month's Crafty Elves post!  My friend Debra Davison (from Meticulosity) and I have promised to make a Christmas card a week for the year so that when the time comes, we'll have this part of our holiday all set!  I might even get my cards mailed out on a timely schedule... maybe... lol!  I especially love that it gives me the opportunity to use some of the many new products I purchased over the holidays that might otherwise be sitting and waiting for next November/December!  

And stay tuned because at the end I'll be announcing the winner from the comments on our first Crafty Elves post in January!

So here we go:

So let me just say that as soon as I saw this Happy Holladays stamp set by Darcie's Heart & Home over at Butterfly Reflections Ink I didn't even have to think about throwing it into my cart.  I knew I had to have it!  So many of my favorite things... coffee, that sweet deer, plaid, and that handsome lumberjack hipster santa..

I mean... cuuute right??  It was fun to use that pretty plaid from an old CTMH paper pack along with dies from Paper Smooches, Craftin Desert Divas, Lawn Fawn, and Pretty Pink Posh!  And it was also fun to use some denim material to texturize Santa's jeans.. tee hee.. love him!!

I'm linking this one up over at Double Trouble Challenge... this week there's a tic tac toe board and I'm taking the middle row across... Glitter, An Image, and a Sentiment.  (The board is at the end of this post) That was easy enough!  And I've met the twist which is Magic... I'd say that Santa and Rudolph are pretty magical (not to mention Coffee... it's made from a magical bean that turns me into a human being every morning!).  And since I met the twist, I can also enter into the Use Your Stuff Challenge which is Magic this time around!  They're partnering with Double Trouble and you have about a week to enter both challenges!

Next up:

O M Garsh I LOVE these adorable critters from Elizabeth Craft Designs... they are from the Winter Animals stamp set...so adorable!  I love how they all coordinated their outfits to go ice skating...maybe their mom was planning a scrapbook page and already had the papers picked out.  

Once Owl gets done skating he'll have some hot cocoa too... I'm sure of it!  I used some dies from CC Designs (the birch trees which I believe are no longer available), Kat Scrappiness and Craftin Desert Divas (which does have a nice die set with a birch tree here) to create my wintery scene... and lots of glitter paper... lots....

And then this Merry from the Merry Christmas word die from Pretty Pink Posh... I LOVE how it just happened to fit in the scallops perfectly!  This is one of my favorite word dies... you're gonna see it a lot this year!  And I almost forgot to mention that beautiful background snowflake paper from the Blizzard paper pad by Gina K.. LOVE!!

Did I mention I love this stamp set!  Wish I'd remembered that I did purchase the dies before I cut these out by hand...lol!

Oh... and if you are hoping you see this one in your mailbox next December... it's already spoken for.  You know who you are.... lol!

I'm playing along with Festive Fridays over at the Outlawz Challenges on Ning... the themes are Birthday, Get Well, Anniversary/Wedding, Christmas, and Anything Goes, so I'd say with Christmas, I'm good...lol!  I'm also playing along over at Mod Squad Challenges to use a Clear or Rubber Brand Name Stamped Image... I've used Elizabeth Crafts stamps on this one!

The next one is using some digital items from Graciellie Designs... she has the most beautiful digital sets ...

I started this one with a beautiful paper from the Rustic Winter Wishes digital paper set... that plaid... I wasn't sure if I'd foil it or not and decided not... then I thought I'd add some snowflakes with a stencil from Newton's Nook and some Deco foil transfer gel and foil those... so I added the gel and as it was drying I realized that wasn't going to work because the snowflakes would take the foil but so would the paper since i printed it on my laser!  So instead I added some gold embossing powder over the gel and heated it.  It's so much fun to watch it heat because it bubbles and has so much movement!  Crisis averted!

I printed a bunch of images from a few sets from Graciellie including Coffee or Cocoa, Christmas Cheer, and Winter Wishes and colored them with my Copics and added a little detail with my Prismacolor pencils.  I added a little sparkle using Liquid Pixie Dust from Ink On 3... love this stuff!!  I added it to the marshmallows and the poinsettia...just dropped a little into a container... just a tiny bit... and applied it with a paint brush.

I foiled the spoon and the sentiment... love that Gold Sequin foil from Gina K!!

I used one of my fave layering dies from Waffle Flower Stamps on this one!

I printed lots of images from these sets and can't wait to use them!

And last for this month but definitely not least:

I've had these images from Polka Dot Orchard printed and hadn't had a chance to use them yet so I was excited to use them this month!  That sweet bear!  There is something about his snout that reminds me of my dog... lol!  He's from the Winter Bear digital stamp set.

I colored up Winter Bear ... the furry parts first and then used some material from an old wash cloth and some Copic Blending Solution to texturize it.  And I love that the set comes with that adorable background already made up!  I just printed it; die cut it, and ran it through my Minc with some red sparkly foil from Gina K!  And that nose was perfect for some liquid glass... I just wanna boop it!

When I print my sentiments I'm sure to leave room around them so I can use dies to cut them out... and then I foiled this one with some turquoise foil... perfect with the color scheme!  I love that the Gina K Designs foils come in a flat pack so I don't have to deal so much with the curling... it's tricky enough as it is!!

I used dies from Kat Scrappiness, Stamplorations and Craftin Desert Divas on this one.

He's such a cutie!!  Also printed out some more images from Polka Dot Orchard so I'm sure you'll be seeing those in a coming month's post as well.

Hope you enjoyed your visit today!  And now for the winner from the January post!  Thanks so much to everyone for stopping by and leaving me some love!  The winner of some Happy Mail from me is:

Vannessa Osbourn!

Vannessa, please email at bzscrapper66 at gmail dot com with your address and also your blog address and/or Instagram if you have one... I'd love to see the cards you've created so far!

And hey!  Let's do it again!  I have lots of cards to mail out so leave me some love and I'll pick a winner and announce it in next month's post!

Now head on over to Debra's place and check out what she's created for you today!

Double Trouble Challenges January Guestie

Excited to be guesting over at Double Trouble Challenges this month

!  This time around the challenge at Double Trouble is to create a warm and cozy feeling card using a printed or embossed background... you may notice, I've kinda used both!

The papers are from the Doodlebugs Designs Kitten Smitten paper pad.

You also get extra chances to win if you use the twist of a kitten or a mitten... and I think I've got that covered too!  This sweet little kitten from the Elizabeth Crafts Dreamers stamp set fell asleep nestled in the warm knit hat and mittens from the Sunny Studio Stamps Warm and Cozy dies with her favorite ball of yarn... and because I used these I'm linking up over at Creative With Stamps Challenge Blog where the challenge is Mittens!  This is the challenge that Double Trouble is teaming up with this month!  So fun and easy to play along with both and double the chances to win!

When I thought about a sentiment, this stamp was laying on my craft table and I thought it was perfect... not just for Christmas!  It's from a prior Close To My Heart Stamp of the Month, Just Treats.

 I mean... I think that kitty looks pretty comfortable and full of joy!  Love that label die from CC Designs that I got a while ago on clearance.

Thanks for stopping by!  I hope you'll head on over to Double Trouble and play along!  I can't wait to see what you create!